Evangelism Blog Post #2

I didn’t get a chance to update since last week, so I will be combining two different Saturday’s evangelism experience into one post.

Here are some things that stood out to me from last week’s evangelism outing:

We met a young couple, one of them expressed that she was an atheist and that her parents were devout Christians. She said her relationship with her parents is terrible and she moved out of the house. She was probably only 17. It was heartbreaking to hear that. I did not want to be pushy, and so we tried our best to give her the love of Jesus and the impression that not all Christians will feel the need to “convert” you.

A young man we met was very interested in what we had to say…in fact, the next day would be his birthday and he was planning on attending a church over an hour away from his house because he likes the environment. He believed in a god, but was not sure who He is or what His word says about humanity. I got to share the gospel with him and he prayed to receive Christ. It was awesome!! One of the teens that was with me from our youth group was honest and felt like he was not sure if the young man who we evangelized to was genuinely receiving Christ. I explained to him that I’ve probably had doubts about every time I’ve led someone to the Lord in a prayer, so that’s natural. At the same time, who am I to judge whether or not a person is genuine? Moreover, think about the investment that it takes for one to willingly pray with someone they just met who they wouldn’t feel any compulsion to comply with! The facts are that we are just scattering seed, and we don’t know what kind of soil the hearts of these people are. Our job is not to judge the soil, it’s to scatter the seed…we can’t judge the seed before it’s time, and if these young people are genuinely accepting Christ, we’ll see the fruit of that! Also, I try my best to walk a person through the decision they are making and have them explain to me what it is that they are doing before leading them in the sinner’s prayer. This way, I know they are not just saying “yes” to everything I am saying, but they are making logical connections between their sin, need for repentance, and sanctification.

Tonight, a couple of us went evangelizing and I got to share with a young man who was waiting for his wife to finish shopping. I asked him if he needed prayer and he told me that he did not. From there, I asked if he considered himself to be a religious person, to which he replied yes, Roman Catholic. I asked him if he died today if he knows where he would go…and he told me he did not. His wife walked out at this crucial point, and so we talked for about 5 minutes further about how if we could go to heaven on our own merit, then Jesus Christ died for nothing! He really seemed to get that point and thanked me for the conversation. I told a teen that was with me that our job is not to save people, and we shouldn’t feel the need to “pin” people down and get them to pray the sinner’s prayer asap. It is better to leave them thinking and contemplating than to leave them confused because we compacted all of theology in 20 seconds. Evangelism is simply sharing Jesus…it’s helping someone take one step further in their walk with Christ. We shouldn’t feel obligated to do everything, God is in control!

Another one of our teens told me he found his coworkers and got to share with them while we were walking around. His coworker’s friends mocked him and left…but then returned to ask what it is that he actually believed about heaven and hell! It was one of those rare occurrences where he was approached on his beliefs and not the other way around. It was so encouraging to see God opening doors.

We will continue to go out and share the good news…keep us in prayer!! It is exciting!